A Quick Guide to Mobile App Backend Development

Posted by James Smith on December 7th, 2022

With the advent and popularization of mobile apps, the focus has now started shifting on not just developing an amazing app but also on understanding the underlying factors that differentiate an amazing app from a common one.

Every detail of an app that provides an effortless experience is incomplete without the mention of its efficient mobile app backend architecture. In that context, read this article as a guide to understand what makes backend development so important, what are the software stacks used for backend architecture, and the tools that help develop a strong backend process.

So, let’s start with what backend server for mobile apps means and how it is different from frontend development.

Frontend VS Backend Development

If you ask a developer how frontend and backend development is different, the answer that you will get is that the frontend uses codes to make an app look pretty and the backend writes codes to make it work.

Basically, applications that are installed from the Play Store or App Store on your smartphone are frontend applications. Be it Instagram, Facebook, or Calculator, each application on your smartphone is a frontend mobile application. How? Frontend applications permit you to connect directly through buttons, text fields, flips, and so on. Since they work on mobile phones, they are mobile applications, too.

A frontend developer is accountable for translating the app’s design to a code that is required to display it properly on the browser. The job grew more meticulous with the introduction of responsive web design. The developer not only needs to ensure that the look is supporting all the current browsers and mobile platforms, but should also note how the design is looking in other computer resolutions and browser widths.

This open-source development environment tool allows mobile app development companies to make web applications using PHP, Apache, and the MySQL database. It comes in a package with SQLite and PhpMyAdmin to help in managing databases.

Now that you have understood what frontend development is, let’s understand what backend development is.

In layman’s language, you can assume the backend as an extra application for your mobile application. It is a piece of software that runs on machines called servers. Backend development for mobile applications empowers the main working of the application. It incorporates things like servers, databases, middleware, and so on and can be accessed through the internet via an application programming interface (API).

A backend developer is accountable for the mobile app server connecting the content one sees on the site to the CMS and developing the logic needed to make everything work as supposed to. On the design front, they are responsible for converting the designs and the front-end development process in the CMS setup, giving the clients an intuitive method to handle their app content. If they make the mobile app backend architecture very simple, chances are that the clients will not have control. And if they make it complex, the possibility that clients get lost in the design becomes high.

Mobile Application Functions That Are Provided With Backend Development

There are many things you need to ensure prior to incorporating a mobile backend for app development. The most basic function to utilize while creating mobile applications are:

Cloud server – Today everybody can afford to have cloud servers that come in various sizes and are stored in a protected location. The most popular cloud servers are Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon AWS. They are generally utilized by large organizations and are reliable.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or 3rd party services – It can happen that the functionalities which you need are already offered by some existing services. They offer backend solutions that are ready to be used by frontend apps. You just need to register, subscribe under a monthly fee and, that’s it, you’ve got a ready and working backend in a few clicks/seconds.

MBaaS – If you prefer not to write your own backend servers or put resources into a cloud-based server, then Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS) is your option. These days there are numerous independent MBaaS providers that offer incredible functionality and an analytics framework to monitor your applications.

Custom server – This is the most flexible and powerful option. Everything which cannot be achieved by SaaS or MBaaS can be achieved by a custom backend. Of course, the obvious drawback is the price of setup and implementation. It requires having a dedicated backend programmer or a whole team. The custom backend can be a simple application or a complex distributed system, all depending on your app requirements.

After knowing about mobile app backend development functions, let us now move on to how backend architecture and mobile app server actually work.

Architecture and Server- Working

Gear up, we are now going to delve into the technicalities of custom backend development so that you and your team are fully accustomed to all the details necessary to make your mobile application a success. In layman’s terms, backend development is preparing your mobile application to work as it was intended to. Now to make it possible, there are some concepts that form the server or backend’s side ‘Software Stack’.

Before I get into that, I will take another minute of yours to tell you that the look of the backend varies from application to application. The points of differentiation can be counted down to the use of data warehouses, cloud–based servers, containerization, BaaS providers, or usage of APIs to replace complex processing.

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